Jemaine Clement

Comedian, actor, and half of Flight of the Conchords. His clothes are mostly 70s retro with some Western/Cowboy influences. When combined with his signature black rimmed glasses, I think Jemaine's almost iconic.

From HBO.com:

Native New Zealander Jemaine Clement has been involved in a wide array of projects on stage, radio, television, and film.

Jemaine is one half of sketch comedy duo Humourbeasts with Taika Cohen, the Academy Award® nominee with whom he recently teamed for a film called EAGLE VS SHARK, written and directed by Cohen and starring Clement. TONGAN NINJA, a film he co-wrote with director Jason Stutter, features Jemaine as Action Fighter, the aptly-named nemesis of the title character.

In 1998, Clement joined fellow New Zealander Bret McKenzie in an endeavor initially intended simply as a vehicle for the two bourgeoning entertainers to learn guitar. The duo performed very briefly under the monikers Moustache and Vested Interest before arriving at the name Flight of the Conchords. They have since been named "Best Alternative Comedy Act" at the 2005 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, "Best Newcomer" at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and been nominated for the Perrier Comedy award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

They have released a live album called "Folk the World" and a six-part BBC Radio 2 series for which they won a Sony UK Comedy Award. In 2005, FOTC made numerous late-night appearances and filmed a "One Night Stand" for HBO. They are currently signed to Sub Pop Records.

Music, as a career path, tends to make people dress weirdly. Elvis, M.C. Hammer and Bjork all made sartorial choices which left us scratching our heads. But today's musicians, even ones in television series like HBO's "Flight of the Conchords," are walking a runway of awkward dweebdom that looks like they've raided the closet of their hipster aunt circa 1973.

And struggling Conchord singer Jemaine Clement embraces the look wholeheartedly, right down to snug corduroy pants and snap-button shirts. And his "wings in flight" muttonchops don't exactly spell suave. Still, we love his style in spite of itself.

Of course, the excessively dweebish musician is a classic substructure that can be traced back to the likes of Buddy Holly and the Carpenters. Not that either of them were dweebs in their day, but rather that modern day dweebism has seemed to morph the two into a look that says "If it helped Zach Braff and Adam Brody each make out with Rachel Bilson it's good enough for me." And frankly, that reasoning alone seems worthwhile enough to pair a western shirt with mother of pearl snap buttons on top of skinny low-rise cords and a pair of Asics Tiger Mexicos.

But Jemaine's look is a simple case of pairing dominant retro pieces over normal, modern apparel for a look that is both quirky and approachable without being too moronic. And trust us, that's a thin line.

One of the essentials of this look is the retro-look T-shirt. Two-toned cotton Ts with or without artwork (http://store.cottonfactory.com) should be placed under a complimenting western style shirt which were huge in the early seventies thanks largely to the weird crossover of country music into mainstream (think Glen Campbell and John Denver). Vintage shirts or brand new work equally as well, but steer clear of embellished shirts with excessive stitching or bold yokes and cuffs. Dweebdom is effective only in its subtleties.

But can we stop with the shirt? Nope. Outerwear is what truly separates this look form the pack. A 1960s Pendelton sport coat for warmer climes or double-breasted peacoats fleece collars, lapels and linings when it gets chilly are perfect for pulling the nerd quotient to its maximum effect. MonsterVintage.com is a great resource for pulling this look together. It's literally one-stop shopping for dweebs and the people who dress them.

And while standard jeans are fine, vintage cords get you that much closer to Bilson. Paired with a wide leather belt that picks up the cues from your sneakers, the bottom half of Jemaine seems to say almost as much as his top half: only with less of an accent.

Describing himself as "part Maori, part European," Clement spent his formative years in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand. Moving to New Zealand's capital Wellington, where he studied drama and film at Victoria University of Wellington, Clement met Taika Waititi (a.k.a. Taika Cohen) with whom he went on to form the Humourbeasts.

In 2004 the Humourbeasts toured New Zealand in a stage show titled "The Untold Tales of Maui," rewriting the traditional Maori legends of Maui. The duo were the recipients of New Zealand's highest comedy honour, the Billy T Award.

It was also at Victoria University that Clement met Bret McKenzie, and together they formed Flight of the Conchords. They have toured internationally and released three CDs: "Folk the World Tour" in 2002, "The Distant Future" EP in 2007, and "Flight of the Conchords" in 2008. The Conchords produced a six-part improvisational comedy radio program on BBC Radio 2 and have appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Late Show with David Letterman, and The Late Late Show. After a successful appearance in 2005 on HBO's "One Night Stand," the Conchords were offered their own 12-part HBO series "Flight of the Conchords." Its first season ran from June to September 2007, and it has been renewed for a second season.

Clement has starred in a number of television commercials internationally and provided voiceovers for many others in New Zealand. In 1999, Clement was a Radio Awards Winner as writer for Trashed, for Channel Z, Wellington. In 2000 he was given a Special Radio Awards Commendation for The Sunglass Store. He also was a writer and cast member of the television shows "Skitz" and "Tellylaughs" in New Zealand.

On February 5, 2006, Outback Steakhouse debuted a series of television commercials starring Clement during Super Bowl XL. The campaign ended in July 2006.

Jemaine Clement also starred in the Export Gold 'Wheelbarrow' television commercial and does the voice over for the L&P "world famous in New Zealand" ad series.

He also played the character Jarrod in Taika Waititi's film Eagle vs Shark (2007), an indie romantic comedy.

Jemaine, along with fellow Conchord Bret, was featured as one of 2008's "100 Sexiest People" in a special edition of the Australian magazine "Who".

In August 2008 it was announced that Clement had signed to star in Gentlemen Broncos, a comedy by Jared Hess, as Ronald Chevalier (a "legendary fantasy novelist").

In August 2008, Clement married his longtime girlfriend, Miranda Manasiadis. Their first child, Sophocles Iraia Manasiadis Clement, was born soon after in October of that year.